Will consider: User fees; furloughs; a garbage fee with a fixed expiration date.Opposes: A sales tax.

Fred Richardson

Will consider: 1-cent sales tax increase.Opposes: Pay cuts; layoffs.

John Williams

Will consider: Garbage fee, if the city agrees to pursue possible privatization of the service; temporary pay cuts.Opposes: A sales tax or permanent salary cuts.

MOBILE, Ala. -- Sales taxes may be regressive, but a majority of Mobile City Council members find them more palatable than a fee to collect garbage.

The reason may come down to simple math: At $17.53 a month, a garbage fee would hit lower-income Mobilians much harder than a 1 percent sales levy.

To pay the same amount in additional sales tax a month, a family would have to spend $1,753 in local stores -- a sum few families in the city pay.

"Very few people spend $1,700 a month on retail," Mayor Sam Jones said.

A garbage fee is one of many proposals that the council has considered as it grapples with a $4.875 million budget shortfall this year and a projected $20 million deficit for the fiscal year that starts in October.

Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that a family would have to earn about $88,000 a year and make all of its taxable purchases in the city to equal the monthly cost of a garbage fee.

An extra 1 percent sales tax likely would cost the median Mobile household -- making $37,812 a year, according to the Census Bureau -- about $12 a month.

"I represent a community of people on fixed incomes, and they cannot afford an additional $20 a month on top of their water bill," he said at a council Finance Committee meeting Thursday.

Councilwoman Gina Gregory said a garbage fee is a fixed cost, which would be more predictable. She said folks do have more control over their own spending, and if they pulled back in response to a higher tax, the city might collect less than anticipated.

Although a $17.53 garbage fee would hit most residents harder than a sales tax, Gregory said, the council could opt for a smaller fee.

"I think it's going to matter how much you charge for garbage (collection)," she said. "Are you going to try to make up the entire deficit, or are you going to make it part of a solution?"

Mobile currently has no separate fee for garbage collection, but that has not always been the case. In the midst of another shortfall, the council voted in 1995 to impose a temporary garbage fee that lasted six months. At the time, the city exempted senior citizens on fixed incomes.

View full size(Press-Register/Mike Kittrell)Mobile City Council President Reggie Copeland said a sales tax is better because it spreads the pain across a larger number of people. In addition to seniors on fixed incomes, apartment dwellers and businesses would escape a garbage fee, he said. In addition, Chief of Staff Al Stokes said, a certain percentage of residents in the past refused to pay the fee. Some 20 percent of residents either were exempt or did not comply, Stokes said.

If the city created similar exemptions to a new garbage fee, Stokes said, officials would have to set up a certification process. The city also would have to pay the water board to collect the garbage fee.

Mobile City Council President Reggie Copeland said a sales tax is better because it spreads the pain across a larger number of people. In addition to seniors on fixed incomes, apartment dwellers and businesses would escape a garbage fee, he said.

Meanwhile, the city would get a portion of its sales tax revenue from visitors who come to Mobile to buy things, Copeland said.

None of the council members -- even those who are willing to consider a garbage fee -- appear thrilled with the idea. Councilwoman Connie Hudson said she would back a garbage fee only if it had a fixed expiration date.

And Councilman John Williams said he would oppose a garbage fee unless the City Council agreed to explore the possibility of privatizing the entire service.